____________________________________________________________________________

I.

The Missa Pange lingua is probably the best known of Josquin's many settings of the mass ordinary. Based on the Easter hymn Pange lingua gloriosa, which is paraphrased in each of the movements, this mass exhibits all of the traits associated with Josquin's later style.

Credo, from Missa Pange lingua --- Josquin des Prez c. 1450-1521

II. Music from the Petrucci's Odhecaton (1501) & Canti B

This year marks the 500th anniversary of Petrucci's Odhecaton (1501), the first printed book of polyphonic music. Although the art of printing from moveable type was invented in the mid-fifteenth century it took several more decades before the problems of printing complex polyphonic music were solved. Finally, in the 1490s, a printer working in Venice named Ottaviano Petrucci designed and cast a complete set of musical symbols and devised a method whereby, in three separate pressings, he was able to print music. In 1498 he petitioned the Venetian Signoria for a patent on the process, but it was not until three years later, 1501, that he issued his first music book, the Harmonice Musices Odhecaton ("One hundred songs of harmonic music"). It was a beautifully executed volume (see the facsimile page elsewhere in this program), offering chansons and instrumental music , mostly by composers featured in this program and their compatriots from the Low countries and northern France &emdash; Busnois, Ockeghem, Regis, Josquin, Agricola, Brumel, La Rue, Compère, and others. Within a few years he had produced two sequel volumes, titled simply Canti B and Canti C, nine volumes of mass settings, four books of motets, and the first of a series of volumes of Italian secular song. The Odhecaton marks a significant moment in music history. From now on complex art music would be available not only to musicians at the courts or churches with the resources to hire copyists or purchase manuscripts, but increasingly to amateurs and the broader European public as well.

Amours, amours --- recorders --- Hayne van Ghizeghem c. 1445-after 1480

Adieu mes amours --- viols --- Josquin des Prez

La Alfonsina --- recorders --- Johannes Ghiselin fl. 1491-1507

Comment peult avoir joye --- viols --- Josquin des Prez

Dit le Bourguignon --- crumhorns --- Anonymous

Latura tu et nennin dea --- crumhorns --- Antoine Bruhier fl. early 16th c.

Tandernaken --- viols --- Jacob Obrecht c. 1450-1505

III. Two motets

Alhtough Petrucci printed motets by both Josquin and Obrecht, these two pieces are not among them. The Josquin motet is a setting of a prayer found in several fifteenth century prayer books. Its mood is sombre and prayerful. The Obrecht motet, with its lively, complex rhythms and close imitations conveys the joy of the Easter text and presents a marked contrast with the Josquin piece.

O bone e dulicissime Jesu --- Josquin des Prez

Laudes Christo redemptor --- Jacob Obrecht

IV. More chansons (mostly) from the Odhecaton, Canti B, and Canti C

Meskin es hu --- cornett, sackbuts, recorders --- Anonymous

Mon pére m'a mariée --- shawm & sackbuts --- Anonymous

and singers with instruments

Il est de bonne heure/L'homme armé --- shawm & sackbuts --- Jean Japart fl. c. 1476-81

Een froylic wesen --- recorders --- Mattheus Pipelare c. 1450-1515

Ich draghe de mutse clutse --- shawm & sackbuts --- Jacob Obrecht

(This is the sole piece in this group not printed by Petrucci.)

Fors seulement --- vocal quartet --- Mattheus Pipelare

V. Songs of Josquin

Although Petrucci devoted entire books to Josquin's masses and issued large numbers of the composer's motets, he offered the chansons only in the early anthologies. Only one of these pieces in this set appeared in Petrucci prints. In fact, many of the Josquin's chansons did not appear in print until long after the composer's death.

Ile fantazies de Joskin --- viols

Baisez-moy, ma doulce amye --- shawm & sackbuts

Cueurs languoreulx --- viols

Douleur me bat --- singers & viols

En l'ombre d'ung buissonet --- sackbuts

Allegez moy --- vocal sextet

El grillo (Petrucci, Frottole, Libro tertio (1504) --- vocal quartet

El grillo e buon cantore --- vocal sextet

VI.

Two of the pieces in the final set are from Petrucci prints, "Et la la la" from Canti C and "Rumfeltière" from the Odhecaton. Josquin's "Cueurs desolez" is found only in manuscripts and in later prints. Like "Cueurs languoreulx" it exhibits the composer's great skill at expressing the affect of the lament.

Et la la la --- singers --- Ninot le Petit fl. c. 1500

Cueurs desolez par toutes nations --- singers & viols --- Josquin des Prez

Rumfeltiére --- ensemble --- Anonymous